There are many great companies working to keep old PC games going. Some, like Nightdive Studios, work to remaster them for modern audiences. Others, like Ziggurat and SNEG, keep older games updated and functional on newer operating systems. Good Old Games has always done that to an extent, but now they’re making a greater commitment with the GOG Preservation Program.
In essence, the program simply means that GOG’s staff has checked into a game and ensured that it runs fine. As they put it, they are essentially taking over ongoing support from the original developer. For some games, such as the Resident Evil series, untangling some of the bugs in the original Windows version can take a lot of effort. In fact, truly, if there’s one thing I want to see from this effort, it’s that more Windows games from the late ‘90s to early ‘00s are touched up, as they tend to have the worst pains when it comes to getting them running again.
Truthfully, I found the launch of the program to be somewhat underwhelming. Going through the changelogs of a lot of games in the list shows that the most recent update was simply for staff validation and the addition of cloud saves in some instances. I was hoping for more ambitious adjustments and patching. I maybe just had too high of expectations for the launch.
Nonetheless, the program is heartening as someone who plays old games just as much as new ones. GOG was founded as Good Old Games with the intent of making classic games digitally available. However, the company later shifted focus to creating a marketplace for all games in a way to rival steam. So, to see them announce that they’re going to make an effort to go back is, at the very least, a step in the right direction.
But I have a lot of lingering questions about the program. Thankfully, Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG, was willing to answer some of them. This interview hasn’t been modified in any way. The trademark symbols are all him.
Zoey: A lot of DOS games on GOG still seem to use DOSBox as a backend. That’s a trusted and reliable solution, but it often requires a lot of fine-tuning for different system environments (resolutions, mouse acceleration, game controllers). Is GOG tweaking it in any way to make it more one-size-fits-all?
DOSBox is, indeed, an amazing open-source solution that we’ve been using since GOG’s inception in 2008. All DOS games are fine-tuned with a bespoke configuration, so it is rarely one-size-fits-all. Even more, we have a custom version of DOSBox that allows us to support cloud saves in DOS games. This feature is exclusive to our platform.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
Zoey: From what I understand, some publishers do not allow GOG to modify a game’s build to address bugs or alter it for modern environments. Is that still a barrier? Is GOG planning to renegotiate agreements for certain games?
In the case of classic GOG releases, we are allowed to modify the game’s build to ensure compatibility with modern systems. Additionally, we often collaborate with the publisher’s technical and QA teams to achieve this goal. There may be some edge cases, but we’ll do our best to include those games in the Program as well. It might take a bit longer for some titles, but we’re confident that, in time, we’ll be able to add every game to the Program.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
Zoey: Are there any games that GOG decided not to put on their storefront that might have another chance under this program?
Truth be told, some games in our pipeline have been waiting in the queue for a long time, because there are always more impactful classic titles that we need to be focusing on. With our new focus on game preservation, we hope to be able to release classics as soon as they are signed. More importantly, we really hope that with the Preservation Program’s success, we’ll be able to bring more amazing classic games (and not only) from the GOG Community Wishlist — titles we’ve been working to resurrect for years.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
Zoey: Is GOG planning to work with fans who may have already created a solution or patch for a game’s modern problems?
Yes, we already had a chance to work with the communities on many great releases on GOG, and will continue to do so. That being said, the GOG Preservation Program aims to preserve the original game and make it playable on modern machines. This means being very careful with any modification that might alter the original experience. We also want to avoid passing the responsibility of maintaining the game’s quality on to the community, as it wouldn’t be fair to them. We do have plans for 2025 to work even closer with the communities and build upon the GOG Preservation Program by adding a feature that would allow gamers to enjoy all of those amazing community updates in an easy and secure way. It would be optional, of course.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
Zoey: If players are reporting additional bugs, concerns, or inconveniences with updated builds for games under this umbrella, will GOG offer support, workarounds, or updates?
We’re going to actively listen to the gaming community – their feedback is the most valuable for us. If we missed something that they notice, you can be sure we’ll take it into account and provide fixes as fast as possible.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
Zoey: Will GOG be working to restore multiplayer functionality to games that have lost it? For example, games that use Gamespy (such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault) as a backend can no longer browse for servers and require fan workarounds. Is GOG able to address this?
This is a complicated topic but the short answer is: yes – we’ll be trying to. Just not yet; currently, we’re focusing on adding new games to the program as fast as we can. We’ve already done something similar in STAR WARS™ Battlefront (Classic, 2004) and STAR WARS™ Battlefront II (Classic, 2005) but it’s a complicated process that will take time. However, some of the games have communities that have worked around this issue and maintain a great multiplayer experience. So right now, I see us addressing this issue by connecting with those communities and trying to find a way for us to work together on this. I was part of a few such online communities and the quality of the experience was amazing.
Marcin Paczyński, Senior Business Development Manager at GOG
It sounds like 2025 will be an exciting time for retro PC gamers. I know that I have a wishlist of many classic games that I’d like to see hit the platform. SimGolf, for example. Battlefield 1942 as another example. I could keep going. Extreme Paintbrawl. See? Want me to stop? William Shatner’s Tekwar.
And while I’m not looking for modified experiences – not everything needs to be remastered in the way Nightdive does it – I would like to be able to start a game up with minimum fuss. I don’t want to have to look for fan fixes myself since that can be a nightmare. So, I look forward to seeing the games that start landing under its umbrella. Their FAQ says that the team wants to add hundreds of games by the end of 2025. Let’s hit the gas.
Published: Nov 22, 2024 04:20 pm